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Kaffeeklatsch’s kool bike rack

Normally today would be car day, but since the four-year old didn’t go to preschool, we had plenty of time to make it to our afternoon class in Lake City. I don’t know how to get there by bike–I’m not sure there’s a route that’s not too steep and not too trafficky for me. We loaded up the old, small-enough-for-the-bus mamabike and discovered a cool bike lane on the way to the bus stop:

The lower of the two NE 40th streets, starting at 7th Ave NE, just east of the freeway is one way (westbound) for cars with the half the street dedicated to bikes going both directions. How great would it be if more streets were set up like this?

After class, we biked a mile to Kaffeeklatsch, whose custom bike rack was facing removal a week ago. I read the good news this morning on the Save the Kaffeeklatsch Bike Rack Facebook page–the rack is moving to the street. The owner said it will happen sometime next week. I can’t get over the speed at which things are unfolding. Go SDOT.

We checked out the bike rack once last year, but this was our first time inside Kaffeeklatsch. It’s got a wonderful kid area and delicious pastries and coffee. We stayed for quite a while, waiting to see if the rain would stop. It didn’t.

We took the bus back towards home and stopped by Trader Joes to grab a few things. It’s not nearly as fun shopping with the old mamabike. The kids had to help carry a couple things that wouldn’t fit in the baskets. Outside TJs I discovered I wasn’t the only Seattleite who didn’t think 30% chance of rain would turn out to be all-day-long rain: five of the seven bikes parked outside didn’t have fenders.

Once the kids were sleeping, I took a three-block solo ride to the Rancho Bravo taco truck. I think my beach cruiser is probably the best bike for this job, but I missed the Big Dummy. Oh, and the rain had finally stopped by this point.

By the way, I am all bus-ed out. It’s great to be able to access far places without the car, but it is a lot more work riding the bus with two kids than riding the bike with them.